Olive's Birthday and the Cat

Olive wanted a cat cake. I winged it.

 This is a very sassy 4 year old. 

 What you see is sweet potatoes and scabs from falling on the driveway.

 Right now I feel like if it's not one thing it's something else. We had a cat for a bit. While we were on chorus tour my Mom acquired a stray cat.  She sent this lovely spring kitten home with my children. We slowly tried to acclimate it to life with our dogs. Because it was not a tiny kitten it did so much better with the dogs and stood it's own. We were all thrilled when it worked and the cat and dogs were friends. Then Stuart got ringworm. Then the cat climbed up in the engine of big blue and met her end. Nate came to the door one day and I heard him say, "Where's Mom?" then when I showed up. "I killed the cat, thankfully the children didn't see it" He was so sad. Nate loves cats. So Olive had a cat for her birthday and then she didn't. She's hoping for one next year. 

Both dogs expecting a litter of puppies soon. What have we done.

I had to follow big blue home from the cabin... it had no tail lights. In the rain. It was stressful. 

One of the most gorgeous fall days.

So glad to be at the cabin when he brought this deer in.

Nate and his hunting. He does not hunt like my family hunts. He does it his way. I get kind of embarrassed. But look at him now! A bonafide hunter as his sister called him.

Thanks to some tips from the pro hunters around, like my brother Tristan and my cousin Ryan, he cut it up himself. Mia helped, she was thrilled. For real, she loved it.

Is it normal to have to babysit your pressure canner the entire time? I tweak it the entire time. 

I opened a jar that very night. Thickened the broth and ate it over some leftover potatoes. We all loved it, so I did another canner full the next day.

 The dogs are seriously sad that the cat is gone.

Yvonne gave me so many tips on what to do with the deer meat. This is some marinated back straps on top of a half of a jalapeno (still had some in garden, score) wrap with bacon and pop in the oven or grill until the bacon is done. Amazingly yum. Recipe here.